Direct url to files on different server7/31/2023 ![]() However, third-party PowerShell modules exist that step into the breach. Invoke-WebRequest doesn’t support these protocols. To download multiple files securely, you had better work with SFTP or SCP. You also shouldn’t use this protocol if security matters. I will explain in one of my next posts how you can do this with Invoke-WebRequest.ĭownloading files through FTP works analogous to HTTP. Usually, you then have to fill out an HTML form. Nowadays, most websites use the features of a content management system (CMS) to authenticate users. Note that this method only works if the web server manages authentication. If the web server uses basic authentication, your password will be transmitted in clear text if you download via HTTP. Make sure to always use HTTPS instead of HTTP if you have to authenticate on a remote server. To add a little extra security, you might want to encrypt the password. You can use the -UseDefaultCredentials parameter instead of the -Credential parameter if you want to use the credentials of the current user. Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "" -OutFile "C:\path\file" -Credential $Credentials If you want to avoid a dialog window in your script, you can store the credentials in a PSCredential object: $Credentials = Get-Credential PowerShell will then ask for the password. You have to at least pass the user name with the -Credential parameter. Invoke-WebRequest : Authorization Required Note that, if you omit the -Credential parameter, PowerShell will not prompt you for a user name and password and will throw this error: If the web server requires authentication, you have to use the -Credential parameter: Invoke-WebRequest -Uri -OutFile C:"\path\file" -Credential "yourUserName" This command stores the web page in a file and displays the HTML code.ĭownload and display file Authenticating at a web server If you want to have the file in the pipeline and store it locally, you have to use -PassThru parameter: Invoke-WebRequest "" -OutFile "file" -PassThru | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content The -ExpandProperty parameter ensures that the header (in this case, “Content”) won’t be stored in the file. This command does the same thing as the previous one. To only read the contents of the text file, we need to read the Content property of the object in the pipeline: Invoke-WebRequest "" | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Content | Out-File "file" If you send a binary file through the pipeline, PowerShell will treat it as a text file and you won’t be able to use the data in the file. Instead, you will find an object with a variety of properties and methods that allow you to analyze text files. However, the pipeline will then not just contain the contents of the file. The reason is that, by default, Invoke-WebRequest sends the downloaded file to the pipeline. The -Outfile parameter is always required if you want to save the file. ![]() ![]() If you omit the local path to the folder, Invoke-WebRequest will just use your current folder. The shorter version for the command line is: wget "" -outfile "file" Invoke-WebRequest : Could not find a part of the path Note that, if you only specify the folder without the file name, as you can do with Copy-Item, PowerShell will error: In the example, we just download the HTML page that the web server at generates. To simply download a file through HTTP, you can use this command: Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "" -OutFile "C:\path\file" This is perhaps an understatement Invoke-WebRequest is more powerful than wget because it allows you to not only download files but also parse them. It is PowerShell’s counterpart to GNU wget, a popular tool in the Linux world, which is probably the reason Microsoft decided to use its name as an alias for Invoke-WebRequest. $WebClient.DownloadFile("","C:\path\file")Īs of PowerShell 3, we have the Invoke-WebRequest cmdlet, which is more convenient to work with. In PowerShell 2, you had to use the New-Object cmdlet for this purpose: $WebClient = New-Object The next simple case is where you have to download a file from the web or from an FTP server. Things get a bit more complicated if we are leaving the intranet and have to download from an extranet or the Internet. This assumes that you have a VPN solution in place so that your cloud network virtually belongs to your intranet. Copy-Item -Source \\server\share\file -Destination C:\path\ ![]()
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